Data dialog: facilitating collaborative decision making through data-driven conversations

Shared decision-making is a process that requires active participation from the patient in making treatment related decisions [5]. Through this process, both patients and clinicians develop a shared understanding about the patients' lifestyle choices and how they affect symptoms to make informed treatment related decisions. However, there are communication and process barriers to developing this understanding, including lack of medical knowledge on the part of the patients and lack of standard processes for clinicians to follow. With Data Dialog, we propose a data-driven approach to information exchange between patients and clinicians, using visualizations as 'boundary objects' for communication and collaboration. We outline a number of scenarios in which Data Dialog can be useful, and discuss opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed.